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I Have Not Even Begun To Be Angry

I’m at the airport now and can’t make a proper post about the shenannigans on Something Awful surrounding WisCon but this post may help. I checked out this fucking thread of ignorance and can’t believe some of the bullshit. On about page 2 or 3 they start pulling images from the WisCon Flickr feed and making fun of the people (mostly women) for being fat, ugly, stupid, and more. They even make fun of people’s kids.

Oh, fuck that.

I have a lot of words to say and some actions to do, but I want to say this one thing. I was scrolling through the thread and looking at the pictures and, instead of being ashamed that I associate myself with such people (horrors!), I couldn’t help but think of how beautiful all those images are. They are pictures of beautiful women of all sizes smiling, having fun, loving where they are and what they’re doing. These are the poeple I go to WisCon to be around. And nothing those half-brained monkeys on that forum say can make me feel any different. You wanna call me out as a fat loser? You go right ahead. But it’s plainly evident that I not only have more class than you, I also have a better life and better friends. All the evidence I need to support that statement is my lack of time spent on the internet trolling for pictures of people I don’t know in order to make fun of them for arbitrary reasons.

Get a life, you losers. And coming from a Star Trek fan, that’s fucking sad.

(p.s. Rachel Moss just better be glad I am not still in Madison right now.)

They are pictures of beautiful women of all sizes smiling, having fun, loving where they are and what they’re doing. These are the poeple I go to WisCon to be around. And nothing those half-brained monkeys on that forum say can make me feel any different.

This. Did I tell you I was falling in love with you this weekend? If not, I can’t imagine WHY not.

…Yeah. I saw that earlier today. Thought about mentioning it to you when we talked on the phone, then thought “nobody needs that much ugly in her life, at least not after fighting off the bubonic plague and while traveling.”

The thing that keeps hitting me is this — there’s something wrong with this girl (the one who posted the pics). She went to a *lot* of trouble to do this — taking and posting the photos, writing that long-ass post. She’s not just evil, she’s *phobic* or something; there’s some kind of trauma here that’s obvious in the way she did this. Something’s seriously wrong with her.

Unfortunately, something’s *so* obviously wrong with her that I think someone needs to have her committed and checked out — the only time I’ve ever seen this kind of obsessive, relentless, vein-busting hatred is with people who’ve later snapped and gone postal on the objects of their hate. (Or found a community of similar hate-filled people, where they then feed on each other — like this Something Awful site, and like Stormfront.)

I was scrolling through the thread and looking at the pictures and, instead of being ashamed that I associate myself with such people (horrors!), I couldn’t help but think of how beautiful all those images are.

Ha! I had that exact same reaction! I was all pissed off when I went to the post, but I deliberately wasn’t looking at the comments, just scrolling through to see the photos…and I accidentally started feeling kind of happy, because, awww! Wiscon! All my awesome buddies!

Oddly, it leaves me wondering (since I don’t know the OP) if maybe she is one of those women who “used to be fat but ‘got better’?”

Not that it makes what she posted any more palatable, but her post kind of reminded me of how anti-Semitic Jews talk about other Jews (or how self-haters of other ethnicities/religions go on about the group they are disassociating from).

Over on badgerbags lj, she has found something, essentially, about what i wrong with this person, that has manged to make badgerbag grant what looks like at least a little understanding about this if not forgiveness. I, otoh, suck at forgiveness and kindness, I don’t care what’s wrong with this woman, I wouldn’t piss on her if she were on fire. unless I pissed gas.

Holy crap. I’m pretty sure I know the person in the first photograph, and if it’s who I think it is, she does not deserve to be treated that way. She’s a hell of a lot cooler and more interesting than the losers at SA can ever hope to be.

It’s just so very 5th grade, you know? And while in theory I do understand that there are so many adults who still get through life making themselves feel better by pointing out the physical non-conformities of others… it’s just so surprising to see such a blatant display of childish chimpazee behavior centered on wiscon of all things.

(Moles was saying the best thing the concomm could maybe do was “just have an anonymous party pass the name of the offender to Tempest and let nature take its course.” Hee.)

I like this post a lot, K. Tempest. Badgerbag had a nice comment in my LJ, too. “I am someone who keeps saying that it’s important for us to be in public, to document, to be visible, for ourselves and for the people like us. One of the reasons we haven’t always, I think, is for fear of ridicule but I refuse to let that fear keep us invisible.”

We are already beautiful, and should continue being visible. Thank you for this post.

I’ve written and erased three posts wishing ill and harm to the posters of that thread. Instead, I’ll just say that this:

“I couldn’t help but think of how beautiful all those images are. They are pictures of beautiful women of all sizes smiling, having fun, loving where they are and what they’re doing. These are the poeple I go to WisCon to be around. And nothing those half-brained monkeys on that forum say can make me feel any different. You wanna call me out as a fat loser? You go right ahead. But it’s plainly evident that I not only have more class than you, I also have a better life and better friends. All the evidence I need to support that statement is my lack of time spent on the internet trolling for pictures of people I don’t know in order to make fun of them for arbitrary reasons.”

Reading this stuff really did make me feel ill. I just can’t imagine what would prompt such vile outpourings – no, well, I guess I can, I guess it’s called deep insecurity (on the part of the OP) and hatefulness (on the part of many of the respondants). I just want to shake them all and ask “What has Wiscon ever done to you?” But. Argh. It would be no use, would it?

(I noticed one commenter responded to badgerbag by saying something to the effect of “That’s why you’ll never get a husband”; my immediate thought was, “No, YOU’re why a lot of women don’t WANT a husband, idiot.”)

FWIW, I love your sentiment here (and also admire badgerbag’s post). I’ve never been to Wiscon (wrong side of the ocean, wrong place in my career right now – am a grad student and thus Not Rich), although I’ve long thought I would like to go. But seeing all those relaxed, happy people in the pictures confirmed that one day, I must!

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I'm a speculative fiction writer by night, a media critic and culture columnist by day, and an activist blogger in the interstices. I enjoy science fiction, fantasy, short stories, harshing your squee about that thing you love, and squeeing hard about that thing I love, in that order.